A Roast on Sunday by Tammy Robinson Page A

Dot thought. She knew where this was coming from now. Ever since Jon had left Maggie had done her absolute hardest to fulfil the roles of both parents. She felt guilty that her child had become the product of a single parent home, mostly because she blamed herself for his departure, and she was determined that Willow would never feel different to any other child in her class. And that meant she would have exactly the same as they had.
    “She doesn’t need lots of things, you know that,” Dot said gently, placing Maggie’s tea down in front of her and fetching a packet of Gingernuts from the cupboard to dunk. “She has love, she has a roof over her head and she has food in her belly. She has fresh air and a vivid imagination that helps her see the world as her playground. It’s all she needs.”
    “I know mum,” Maggie said. “But I still wish I could buy her everything she deserves.”
    “But she doesn’t want for anything. Even if you were able to buy her all the best toys in the world, you know they’d sit neglected and dusty in her room, while she and Nick were out climbing trees and swimming in the creek.”
    “ I know, you’re right,” Maggie sighed.
    “You’ve raised a wonderful girl. She is clever and has her head screwed on straight. Stop being so hard on yourself.”
    “Thanks mum.” Maggie reached over and gave her mother’s hand an affectionate squeeze.
    “You’re welcome. Oh bugger, ” she peered into her mug, “I held my biscuit in for too long and now it’s dropped off.” She went to the drawer to fetch a teaspoon to fish the offending biscuit out. Something out the window caught her eye.
    “Oh what’s he up to now?” she asked. She could see Ray had wheeled the bike out of the shed and was connecting it with wires to a battery pack sitting on the ground. She pushed opened the window above the sink.
    “What are you doing to that thing now?” she called.
    Ray looked up. “ Mind your own business.”
    “Fine, but don’t go calling me when you end up in a ditch, you crazy old bastard!” She slammed the window shut.
    “I swear that man could try the patience of a saint,” she grumbled to Maggie.
    “ Yet somehow you’ve put up with him for nearly fifty years” Maggie said.
    “Yes, and I deserve more than a medal let me tell you.”
    “How do you guys do it? How have you stayed together through all the drama life has thrown at you over the years?”
    Dot was surprised by the question but she didn’t let it show on her face. Maggie wasn’t one for deep conversations, not with her family at least. In fact, Dot was so used to her daughter keeping her feelings and emotions close to her chest that it took her a minute or two to rally an answer.
    “I don’t honestly know,” she admitted. “I guess back in my day, when you stood in front of that altar and you promised yourself to each other, you just knew it was for the rest of your life. There was never any question of otherwise. You pledged your love in thick and thin, blah, blah, blah, and you stuck to it. No matter how hard it got, or how many times you could easily have killed him over the years. And believe me, there were plenty of those.”
    “You were never tempted to throw in the towel?”
    “Oh I was tempted plenty of times. There were days I packed a suitcase for you and I and we got as far as the end of the driveway. But I always came back.”
    “Why?”
    Dot looked towards the window where Ray was bent over the bike.
    “I love the crazy old fool,” she said simply. “He drives me insane and there are times I can’t stand the sight of him, but I do love him.”
    “And that’s enough?”
    “It is.”
    Maggie sighed heavily.
    “What’s on your mind love?” her mother asked, concerned. “Is everything ok?”
    “Oh nothing, nothing at all. I’m fine.”
    “Is it because of Jack? Has he got you thinking this way?”
    “Of course not. Don’t talk crazy.” Maggie sat back up straight again and scowled at